NFL 18 game regular season?

The NFL is debating moving to an 18 game regular season as soon as 2010. Read the rest of the story and see video below.

The NFL is talking about moving from a 16 game season to an 18 game season, deleting two of the four preseason games in the process. The biggest obstacle standing in the way of an NFL administration and players agreement is money.

The change to an 18 game season currently would not come with any more money for the players. Richard Berthelsen, the interim executive director of the NFL Players Association explains:

“It doesn’t help a player who signed a five-year contract. He is playing more games, but his contract is based on 16 games. If they increase to 17 or 18 games, their salary has to be increased. Divide their salary by 16, that is the per game pay. Whatever the number of games, add to that amount. That is our position.”

Basically, he says that the effective per-game paycheck for the players will go down with an 18-game season. Goodell, however, disputes this argument. He says salaries are currently based on a 20-game season. Changing two of those games from preseason to real season games doesn’t matter. He also feels the players would benefit financially in the end, as they get 60% of the league’s revenue. The league stands to make more money on the conversion of two preseason games into regular season games, which would, in turn, benefit the players. The added money should result because, as Goodell points out:

“What’s clear is that our pre-season games are not high-quality content.”

While ticket revenue will not change, as teams charge the same amount to watch a game highlighting their starters as they do for fans to watch bench players play against each other, television contracts should bring in a significant amount of money, which the league would share with the players.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. I, personally, would love to ditch those two preseason games and get more of what actually matters. Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis agrees that the preseason should be cut – see video below.